


Like a River Flows Surely to The Sea

by Silkmouse



Series: Widomauk/Mighty Nein ATLA AU [1]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Avatar: The Last Airbender AU, Developing Relationship, Mighty Nein mentioned but don't really appear in the fic, Molly is a bloodbender, Other, Timestamp, but we'll get to it, really more about the relationship than the lore, the lore is kind of background stuff in this one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-13 23:47:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28786686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silkmouse/pseuds/Silkmouse
Summary: My entry for the Widomauk 2021 Winter Fic Exchange for Lauren.Molly hates using his bloodbending abilities. They make him think too much of the person who had this body before him. But he would do whatever it takes to keep his friends, and Caleb, safe. And Caleb will be there to help him the bad feelings get too close to the surface after a close encounter.An Avatar: The Last Airbender Mighty Nein AU Timestamp in the middle of the group's adventures.
Relationships: Mollymauk Tealeaf/Caleb Widogast
Series: Widomauk/Mighty Nein ATLA AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2110509
Comments: 5
Kudos: 34
Collections: Widomauk Winter Gift Exchange 2021





	Like a River Flows Surely to The Sea

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mxlinoe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mxlinoe/gifts).



> So I wanted to do a bunch of scenes in one fic because honestly the ATLA lore is too much for one fic/timestamp, but I figured I'd start with one further along where Widomauk is actually starting to develop. I'd definitely like to add more scenes/timestamps in this series soon, because there's a bunch of things I thought of that I didn't even bring up here that I would like to write about.
> 
> Also I should say that I have never completely watched the whole series, I have seen most of Book 1, and absorbed a lot of the rest by osmosis through my sister and friends, so I apologize for anything I might not have fully understood.
> 
> I hope you like this Lauren!
> 
> (technically it's still Jan 15th where I live, but AO3 says it's Jan 16)

Molly filled his bucket with water the old fashioned way. He couldn’t bear to use his gift in the moment, the thought of manipulating anything else the way he had those people made him want to retch.   
  
It had felt so natural to do so, to manipulate people like puppets, simply because he had let something deep inside him that he had been trying to ignore for over a year take over. He never wanted to see that look on someone’s face ever again, realizing they’ve lost all control of themselves, it was his worst nightmare and he’d inflicted it on other people.   
  
He soaked his cloth in the bucket, squeezed it out, and proceeded to clean up the blood running from his cheek, the back of his neck, his hand. It wasn’t enough to be concerning, but he had pulled out all the stops in that fight _ ,  _ showed no mercy, and even though he should have been used to it, he felt...unclean.   
  
_ If you hadn’t, they would have taken Caleb away, and probably Fjord as well, and they would have had no qualms about killing you and all of your friends. _ _  
_ _  
_ The thought that he also wouldn’t change a thing about what he’d done did not help.   
  
He cursed as he continually wiped the cut on his cheek that seemed to refuse to stop bleeding. He didn’t actually know if he could stop it with his bending, but he had pushed his limits enough for the day.   
  
“Mollymauk?”   
  
Molly turned to the sound of the voice as his heart clenched at the same moment. “Caleb? You should be resting.” The battle had taken a lot out of him. Molly had seen his bending go from a raging inferno to almost nothing but sparks as he tried to fend off their attackers. Possibly people he had once known long ago.   
  
“I needed to come check on you,” Caleb admitted, almost uncharacteristically forward. “I noticed you disappeared afterward, I needed to make sure-” he paused, his expression changing to a familiar one of grief. “I needed to make sure they hadn’t hurt you.”   
  
“Nothing more than a few scratches dear,” Molly said truthfully. He hated seeing Caleb look so sad, but a part of him was also pleased at the thought of Caleb being so worried about him. “All of my wounds were self-inflicted.”   
  
The look on Caleb’s face didn’t soften at Molly’s attempt at comfort. “They may not have hurt you physically, but they have hurt you in other ways.” He said it, not as a question, but as a statement. “You looked like you were going to throw up afterward.”   
  
The tiefling turned away “I’ve never known you to be so perceptive to something that wasn’t book-related Mister Caleb,” he joked, trying to ignore the tears threatening to gather in his eyes and his throat holding back a sob.   
  
He was barely aware out of the corner of his eye as Caleb up to kneel beside him. “Molly you saved us all.”   
  
“I know, and I would do it again, but-” his voice broke. “Caleb, I’m scared. It was so easy to just end them with a few waves of my hand, I don’t want to be like him. I don’t want to be someone that can hurt people so effortlessly without even thinking about it. I saw them, I heard them as I drained the life from their bodies, I never want to do something like that again.”   
  
“You are a much better person than I, Mister Mollymauk,” Molly heard Caleb’s accented voice say. “Too often in my past and in my present have I been too eager to hurt people, even ones I care about, I am barely better than my fellow Empire-controlled brethren.”   
  
“You and I both know that’s not true, Caleb. Ikithon manipulated you at a young age, and the Empire enables him because he gives them good little soldiers. Even your friend that doesn't have a talent for bending.”   
  
“Ikithon prefers people with elemental talent, that is true, but he is not a complete fool. He saw Astrid’s potential to be deadly even without the same gifts that Wulf and I possessed, and if anything that made her more dangerous, she is not the kind of Empire soldier one is usually expecting.”   
  
Molly gave a watery chuckle. “Well I’ve seen Beau and Veth fight, and I wouldn’t want to tangle with them as enemies either, I don’t want to imagine what they would be like if they could manipulate earth , water, fire, or air. Veth does enough damage with a crossbow and some gasoline soaked rags.”   
  
Caleb’s laugh sounded slightly forced “ _ Ja,  _ well I’m sure the Empire would have been glad to snatch any of our friends up if you hadn’t prevented it. You did more than save us Molly, you kept a very precious thing from getting into Ikithon and King Dwendal’s hands. They do enough with hundreds of benders on their side, I do not want to imagine what they could do with the power of the Avatar.”   
  
It wasn’t a possibility Molly had ever wanted to entertain, the thought of Fjord or any of his friends being in the same situation Caleb had been in made his stomach churn and his blood boil. He clenched his hands into fists, breathing deeply, trying to let that anger go. He didn’t need to get so worked up again after what he had just been through.   
  
“ _ Schatz,  _ let me help you.” Caleb said softly.   
  
Molly opened his eyes, suddenly aware again that there was still a small trickle of blood running down his cheek and onto his neck and collarbone. He sighed, handing the cloth to Caleb, and moving to take off his shirt.   
  
Caleb’s cheeks flushed a light pink, which Molly found quite endearing, as if he had never seen the tiefling shirtless before. “It’s better to try and wash it out while it’s still fresh,” he explained.   
  
  
Caleb nodded, but his blush didn’t subside. He brought the cloth up to wipe Molly’s cheek, gently, almost reverently. The tenderness in the action made Molly’s heart beat faster and his own face warmer, oh gods he hoped Caleb couldn’t feel him blushing underneath his hand.   
  
Molly set his shirt in the river to soak, but he couldn’t bear to move any further and risk disrupting this moment. Caleb’s hand seemed to radiate heat and he had to resist the urge to nuzzle into it. He wasn’t sure if it was Caleb’s nature as a firebender that made him so warm, or if it was a combination of the recent battle and Molly’s own tiefling heat, but he was far from complaining.

Something about the silence made him feel safer, calmer, and he felt his previous stress lessen a little. He was pretty sure Caleb had cleaned his face up entirely at this point, but the ginger continued as if he didn’t want a reason to stop.   
  
Molly brought his hand up to Caleb's wrist, bringing his motions to a stop. “I think you got it all, love,” he said softly, not taking his hand away.   
  
They sat there for a few seconds with Molly just holding Caleb’s hand to his face,realizing he could look into Caleb’s enchanting blue eyes from where he was sitting, and Caleb seemed to allow it.   
  
Moonweaver, this man made him feel so many things he still wasn’t entirely sure how to deal with, but he knew he enjoyed every single one. Caleb made him feel so alive every time he so much as smiled the slightest smile, or laughed the tiniest laugh.

“I thought they were going to take you away,” Molly whispered, overcome with emotion. “I couldn’t let them do that. You should never have to go back there ever again.”   
  
Caleb let out a soft exhale that Molly could almost swear he felt. “Mollymauk.”   
  
“And don’t give me some bullshit about it being better for everyone Caleb,” he said a little more firmly “We would all miss you….  _ I  _ would miss you.”   
  
“I would miss you all as well.” Caleb admitted, tearing up a little himself. “I have learned more from all of you in the past several months than I ever did under his tutelage. And I have learned how to feel hope again.You...you have come to mean a great deal to me.”   
  
Molly inhaled a little at the intensity in Caleb’s stare at that last sentence. “Caleb?”   
  
Caleb leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to the corner of Molly’s mouth “I am not planning to go away anywhere anytime soon, whether by the Empire or anyone else,” he said against Molly’s skin.   
  
“We won’t let them get another chance.” Molly promised “We'll help Fjord finish his training, and we’ll all get better until we can take them on together.”   
  
“That may take a while yet  _ schatz,  _ but you are right, they’ll never know what hit them.”   
  
Molly snorted “They sure as hell won’t, no one could account for this bunch.”   
  
“Speaking of which, I should probably let them know you are okay before they all come looking for us.”   
  
“Let me finish washing the blood out of my shirt and then I’ll join all of you, we’ll probably want to get moving again as soon as possible,” Molly agreed, leaning over one last time to give Caleb a quick peck on the lips. He laughed when he saw Caleb’s face turn bright pink. “Jester’s going to see you and know exactly what we were up to if you go back like that.”   
  
“Caduceus would have noticed anyway, he’d just be quieter about it than Jester,” Caleb replied. “One of them will probably want to come over here to see you themselves if you don’t mind the company.”   
  
“I don’t, it helps keep my mind off of things. Send Jester my way if you want her to bother me instead of you, the less information you give her, the more she’ll embellish it.”   
  
“She might write an entire romance novel about us if we let her, probably with some cheesy title and tagline like  _ ‘A Steamy Affair’ a forbidden love story between a fire and water bender. _ ”   
  
“Don’t tell me you wouldn’t read it.” The tiefling smiled.   
  
Caleb sighed. “ _ Ja,  _ I probably would.” He released his wrist from Molly’s hand and stood. “Don’t be too long,  _ liebling _ .”   
  
Molly nodded, smiling to himself as Caleb walked back toward their friends. As he scrubbed out the remaining stains, he felt like he was washing some of his own burden away as well. And when he finished, he actually felt comfortable enough with himself to remove the water from his shirt completely, guiding it back into the river using the technique he perfected in the circus in what felt like forever ago.   
  
  
Their little group could take whatever they had coming their way. With two fire benders, a water bender, an earth bender, plus two of the deadliest women with a beaustaff and crossbow Molly had ever seen, and  _ the _ Avatar. Nothing would ever see them coming, not the Empire or anyone else.   
  
And for the first time in weeks Molly felt like everything would turn out okay.

**Author's Note:**

> In case anyone is curious, in this au my headcanons are:
> 
> Jester: Airbender
> 
> Beau: Non-bender, but studied a lot of bending fighting techniques at the Cobalt Soul
> 
> Fjord: The Avatar, started out as a Waterbender
> 
> Caleb: Firebender
> 
> Veth: Non-bender, but I imagine she still likes to set things on fire the old fashioned way
> 
> Molly: Waterbender
> 
> Yasha: Firebender
> 
> Caduceus: Earthbender
> 
> (also, yes the fic title is a reference to the Elvis song "Can't Help Falling in Love With You" I am sappy)


End file.
